Congratulations! You made it! You survived and excelled in your student teaching. You are now a science teacher! If you would, take a few minutes to share your wisdom about how to negotiate this difficult year with the students who are following in your footsteps by answering the following questions.
a. What are some things students should do in their fall practicum to make their student teaching go more smoothly?
Of course in the fall we are required to make a unit plan for a unit we plan to teach in the spring. My advice is to have some back-up plans/ideas for each of those lessons. If your real plan is to show a powerpoint presentation on plate tectonics, but for some reason, your SmartBoard or projecter craps out that morning, you will have a back up plan, or some other way to teach the concept.
In all seriousness, HIBERNATE....I can't tell you how precious sleep is. You are taking it for granted right now... just you wait.
b. What 430 topics/assignments should students make sure are addressed in detail to prepare them for student teaching?
EDC 430 is a really great time to observe not just your cooperating teacher, but other science teachers in your high school. Take the time to venture out of your classroom-to-be and see: what other teachers teach, how they teach it, how they keep control in the room, the ways they go about dealing with a situation that gets out of control.
I really liked the journal entry we had to do that made us try to figure out what our teacher's lesson plan would look like for a lesson. While watching the lesson, try to determine the objectives, the assessments, and the different parts of the lesson. It is helpful to not only see how they assess their objectives, but how much teaching they get done in one period.
c. Help the next group of science education student teachers by completing the thought: "If I knew in September what I know now, I could have been better prepared for student teaching if I had ...."
taken the textbook that my students were given, and read through the chapters I knew I would be teaching. Some topics are easy and simple to glance over quick before teaching it. Other topics are not so familiar and you definitely need to make sure you fully understand the topic before teaching it. Students and your cooperating teacher will definitely get the sense that you don't know what you're talking about if you read the chapter or forgot to read the chapter the night before. There were definitely times when I had trouble explaining a topic. If you know back in the fall that you can't explain genetics well, then go ask your cooperating teacher and get advice before its the day you are teaching genetics. Our cooperating teachers are there to give us another way of teaching the knowledge, so don't be afraid to ask for help.
d. Are there other words of wisdom/encouragement that you want to share?
The first time your lesson does not go according to plan (there's a fire drill, great discussion evolves), you may freak out and go crazy trying to figure out how to "fix the mess." Just remember that you will see the kids tomorrow, and it's not a big deal to not get through everything. It's better to have more planned than you can get through. If it perpetually happens that you only get through half of the material, then there is something to worry about (gotta stick to that curriculum!). But, it is ok to pick up where you left off the last class. You may end up with a better version of the original plan than you thought.
a. What are some things students should do in their fall practicum to make their student teaching go more smoothly?
b. What 430 topics/assignments should students make sure are addressed in detail to prepare them for student teaching?
c. Help the next group of science education student teachers by completing the thought: "If I knew in September what I know now, I could have been better prepared for student teaching if I had ...."
d. Are there other words of wisdom/encouragement that you want to share?